Author: Nick

There are times I just need to shut up and listen. I experienced two of them yesterday. When someone else is talking. I guess this is the big one. I had prepared a great lesson for the folks at the Abbeville Nursing Home. The folks who are normally quiet, non-responsive, even comatose, just seemed to want to talk. I’d smile and let them talk and then try to get back to the lesson. It didn’t work. The lesson was on choices. I finally made the choice to shut up and listen. It was the right choice. When you are in a nursing home, no one listens. In fact, most of us feel that no one ever really listens. So when someone is talking, especially if they are normally quiet, give the greatest gift you have: just shut up and listen. When you are hurting. Yesterday was not a good day. It went down hill from the nursing home. At one point my daughter asked how things were and I made the mistake of answering honestly. I had just heard Joyce Meyers talking about not saying anything when we don’t have anything good to say. When we are hurting, we […]

Today someone commented on a post from three years ago. She said “That may be the most powerful article I have ever read in my life.  It definitely couldn’t be more timely. ” That made me think I should repost it. Here it is. Ephesians 6:12 New Living Translation (NLT) 12 For we are not fighting against flesh-and-blood enemies, but against evil rulers and authorities of the unseen world, against mighty powers in this dark world, and against evil spirits in the heavenly places.   Satan uses people like a chess player uses pawns to carry out his schemes. There is no doubt about it. He tried to use Jesus. He will try to use us.    This leaves us with two challenges: 1. To recognize it’s a spiritual fight and see the real enemy. 2. Not be pawns ourselves.    The key to this is to recognize that satan uses folks when they are tired or hurt or discouraged or frightened, when they feel trapped, AND when they are not in Christ. When we are in Christ, people will see Jesus in us. It just happens. It’s not something we do. Jesus acts as our shield and our fortress.   […]

Check out the results of a recent survey: The question was — “What is the greatest struggle that Christians in their 20s and 30s face today?” Here were the top 10 answers that were repeated the most: We lack mentors and being mentored in the deeper things of God. We lack being connected with others who are serious about growing in Christ. We struggle with spiritual loneliness and lack of community. We long for connection and deep relationships with serious Christians. We lack understanding of the Bible and knowing how to read it with profit. We struggle with distractions and being free from the influences of the world. We struggle with compromising with the world’s false narratives because of fear of persecution, being labeled haters, bigots, intolerant, closed-minded, idiots, and losing friends. We struggle to find authentic friendships based on knowing Jesus, loving Him and serving Him. We struggle with finding our purpose in the world. We lack inspiration and motivation and get distracted and discouraged by the cares of this life. We really don’t Jesus that well, so we need true discipleship. So what do  you know, twenty and thirty somethings are just like the rest of us. […]

I have just completed the first of six weeks of nursing home ministry. I am filling in for my good friends who are taking a much-needed six-week break. The message I shared for the first week came pretty easily. Since turning sixty-five last year I have struggled with issues of aging. I have asked questions like, “Has my opportunity for ministry passed?” “Is this the beginning of the end?” “What’s left for me?” Okay so I can be a bit of a drama queen. It dawned on me that my struggles put me in a perfect place to minister to the mostly aging population of the nursing homes. Having struggled with the issues God had shown me some of the older folks he used in scripture like Moses who was eighty when he stood before the burning bush and Noah who had already passed 600 of his eventual 900 year life before the ark became an issue. It seems a mistake to look at our “talents” and the “highs” of our lives when considering ministry. Sure it makes a lot of sense to take a stock of our positives to decide what we have to offer to others. The […]

Yesterday I discovered that Facebook comments can be deleted. This was life changing. I choose to delete comments someone had made and not engage them. It was awesome. I have choices. I don’t have to deal with every irritant out there. I don’t have to ruin my day because someone has issues. I don’t have to be controlled by others. I don’t have to be controlled by circumstances. I have choices. I realize that this is all very obvious. It is, however, one of the key truths of life that I often forget. I have written about this before: http://www.nicksigur.com/choices/, more than once, http://www.nicksigur.com/choices-2/.  Here I go again. The steadfast love of the Lord never ceases;     his mercies never come to an end;  they are new every morning;     great is your faithfulness. Lamentations 3:22-23 I love those verses. I love the possibilities within them. Every day, in fact every moment, is a new chance, a new possibility. I can choose to grab on or let it slip by.  I don’t have to be governed by circumstances, history or habit. I can choose different paths. This isn’t easy for me. I have discovered I have an addictive behavior. If I don’t do […]

I have decided I need to take a day just chillin’. A few months ago I was feeling old, burned out and, well, retired. With much encouragement, like my Pastor reminding me that Moses was 80 when he stood before the burning bush, I have decided that life isn’t exactly over. These days I am so busy that I forgot that today was my first grandchild’s birthday. That is unacceptable. She’s my original grandchild that I spent fun days with and she’s about to give birth to my second great grand. I can’t be forgetting her birthday. I need to step back. Yesterday I spent the day in Baton Rouge for work. Tomorrow I have a day filled with depositions and meetings. But today I’m just chillin. Here’s my plan. So far I have written two articles for the September issue of Covenant Spotlight. I am writing this blog. Then I’m going to take my morning swim, check my mail and get my wife some coffee. After that I am going with my wife, assuming the coffee is enough to get her up,  to a nursing home in Abbeville to fill in for my good friends who are on […]

In the Kingdom, every person has value. We won’t appreciate anyone’s value if we don’t appreciate our own. Our confusion is understandable. In the words of Casting Crowns (watch the video)  “I am a flower quickly fading; Here today and gone tomorrow; A wave tossed in the ocean; A vapor in the wind. In the totality of creation and the eternalness of time, we ain’t much. You have to wonder:  Who am I, that the Lord of all the earth would care to know my name; would care to feel my hurt. Who am I, that the Bright and Morning Star would choose to light the way for my ever wandering heart. We are caught in the cosmic confusion between our insignificance and the attention the Creator give us. We can vibrate between humility based on plain worthlessness and vanity formed by Godly focus. Balance is essential. We need to understand not just our value, but the reason for it. Not because of who I am, but because of what You’ve done. Not because of what I’ve done, but because of who You are. We’ve done nothing valuable. He’s done it all. Our value is based not on us, but on Him.   We have value. In […]

My wife and I watched Tears of the Sun last night. A Special-Ops commander leads his team into the Nigerian jungle to rescue a doctor who will only join them if they agree to save 70 refugees too. The movie has plenty of action and drama, and the atrocities we commit upon each other. It also deals with the worse kind of judgment: the valuation of people. The commander, played by Bruce Willis, is sent in to rescue only  a white German doctor. He learns the value of human life no matter the color, nationality, training, or status. His superiors who are insisting on rescuing only the doctor seem obviously the bad guys. Aren’t we guilty of the same thing? In just 100 days in 1994, some 800,000 people were slaughtered in Rwanda by ethnic Hutu extremists. They were targeting members of the minority Tutsi community, as well as their political opponents, irrespective of their ethnic origin. In an ongoing genocide, African farmers and others in Darfur are being systematically displaced and murdered at the hands of the Janjaweed. The genocide in Darfur has claimed 400,000 lives and displaced over 2,500,000 people. More than one hundred people continue to die […]